This invention relates to a gun rack installable in a police car or the like, particularly within the passenger compartment of the police car, for holding a shotgun, riot gun, or other weapon in a secured, locked position within the police car and which, upon opening the gun lock, permits the ready withdrawal of the gun for use by the police officer.
Modern police practice includes equipping patrol cars and unmarked police cars with shotguns or riot guns. These shotguns are conventionally mounted in a rack installed within the front passenger compartment of the patrol car with the gun extending generally vertically with its butt or stock resting in a stock receiving cup mounted on the floor of the car and with the shotgun barrel extending upwardly. A gun lock is secured to the dashboard of the patrol car which when closed and locked surrounds the middle portion of the gun (e.g., the portion of the shotgun immediately in front of the receiver of the gun) thereby preventing substantial axial and sidewise movement of the shotgun relative to the lock and thereby maintaining the butt of the stock within the stock receiving cup. However, with these vertical prior art gun mounts, the barrel of the shotgun extends considerably above the level of the dashboard so that it may readily be seen from the exterior of the police car. Additionally, the barrel of the gun extends up in front of the windshield and, at least to a limited degree, blocks the vision of the driver and the riding officer. Still further, these prior art vertical gun mounting fixtures require inserting fasteners into the dashboard of the car which leaves fastener holes in the dashboard thus reducing the value of the car when sold by the police department. Still further, the dashboards of many cars do not have adequate structural strength to rigidly mount the gun rack and thus the gun rack may physically be ripped from the dashboard. In certain instances, suspects or prisoners have ripped the gun lock from the dashboard of the car enabling the prisoner to arm himself with the shotgun. Additionally, particularly with unmarked police cars, the presence of a shotgun extending above the level of the dashboard clearly identifies the unmarked car as a police car. Still further, when vertical shotgun mounts are installed in certain models of police cars, access to the glove compartment of the police car is prevented and the presence of the shotgun may interfere with the riding officer's use of radio communication equipment which is typically installed within the police car on the transmission tunnel or on the dashboard immediately above the transmission tunnel. Still further, the presence of a vertically mounted shotgun interferes with, and in some instances, prevents a third passenger from riding in the front seat of the patrol car. Also, in the event of a collision of the police car, officers have been injured upon striking the vertically mounted shotgun.
References may be made to the following U.S. patents which are in the same broad field as the shotgun rack of the present invention: U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,692,069, 2,775,351, 3,473,673, 3,497,077, and 3,767,094.